Bombers set to open fall camp

Mountain Home head coach David Joyce (center) talks things over with players during the team’s spring game in May at Bomber Stadium. Mountain Home kicks off fall camp on Monday afternoon as preparations begin for the 2014 season.(Photo: Kevin Pieper/The Baxter Bulletin)

The Mountain Home Bombers will join teams across the state in kicking off fall camp Monday as high school football begins in Arkansas.

First-year head coach David Joyce has had four months at the helm to school his new charges in a brand new style of football and is glad to see fall camp finally arrive.

"We are very excited, it's been a long process. It seems every year, the offseason gets longer and longer, and it takes longer for that first practice to get here," he said. "I'm super excited that we get to start our actual football practice on Monday."

The first-year MHHS head coach expects around 50 players for the high school team, with those numbers based on summer workouts.

Junior high players will hit the field in the morning, with varsity players coming in at 4 p.m. each day during the first week of practice. In the second week, all practices will be in the afternoon as coaches begin in-service teaching meetings in preparation for the upcoming school year.

"We will have an early junior high practice, that way all the junior high and varsity coaches can be there and get as much help as possible at the junior high," Joyce explained. "We'll come back and have a four-hour practice that first week with the varsity. We'll have a classroom break in between, so we'll go for about an hour and 45 minutes, then take a 30-minute break at the whiteboard. The kids will have some snacks given to them and Gatorade put in them.

"Then we'll go back and have another hour and 45 minute practice. We'll have a full offense practice and full defensive practice, with a break in there," he added. "During those four-hour practices, we won't condition the kids, because it's a pretty big grind. The following week, they get shorter by an hour, and the third week, we're into our game-week preparation."

Teams are limited during the first week by the Arkansas Activities Association in what drills they can conduct. Teams must go through several days in helmets only before moving to full-pad work.

Joyce doesn't feel the restrictions will make much of an impact on the Bombers' practices.

"I don't think there will be that much difference from when we are wearing full pads and not wearing full pads, we just won't go to the ground," he said. "The contact is less, but we'll operate a pretty similar practice in the drills we do and the sessions we have. At that point, you just blow a quicker whistle and you have less contact, but you're the same difference with drills."

Mountain Home will start preparing for the team's preseason scrimmage against Highland on Aug. 25 from the opening day of practice.

"We've been working all summer on getting as much offense and defense as we can," said Joyce. "On Monday, when we get into our team session for offense and defense, we want it to be as game-like as possible. We'll set up our coaches just like it will be for our first scrimmage, or our opener at Harrison. Every single day at practice, we will operate our team sessions as close as possible to a game situation. Each day, we'll refine it more and more. When we get to that first day, we want to be as sharp as we possibly can."

Newcomers to the team are still welcome. Any new students, or existing students at MHHS, can contact Joyce at the fieldhouse to join the team.

"If they haven't been here all summer, but they want to join the football team, they are more than welcome," he said. "My door is always open to new players. All they've got to do is knock on my door."